Charity serves education sentence

Tuesday 17 June 2014

Prisoners will be sentenced to lessons at La Moye with a long-distance learning programme to help them get the skills they need to stay out of trouble once they've served their time.

The Prisoners Education Trust - a UK charity which helps prisoners get qualified - has been given a £24,000 grant by the Lloyds Bank Foundation which will pay for 80 prisoners in Jersey who want to study at the prison over the next two years.

They will be able to choose from a range of subjects and levels to gain skills and get some qualifications before they are released.

Last year 23 inmates successfully completed PET courses.

PET Chief Executive Rod Clark said: “This grant means we can help more people to turn their lives around through education.

“Teachers at HMP La Moye tell us just what a positive impact our work has and with 25 years’ experience we know that learning in prison works. The research shows people we’ve funded are a quarter less likely to reoffend, which means safer communities and fewer victims.

“We are committed to helping as many people as possible at La Moye study via distance learning to give them a fresh start and a chance to give back to society when they leave prison.”

Executive Director of the Lloyds Bank Foundation for the Channel Islands John Hutchins said: “We were pleased to assist with this initiative and hope it will help the individuals to be better placed upon leaving prison.”

The prison’s Open Learning tutor Lucy Blackmore said: “Many PET funded students are now in the community in employment; one works as a statistician, one is in a tutoring role for basic skills and another works in Jersey Tourism. One student has been so inspired by the support he has had from PET, he is trying to set up a charity to help ex-prisoners gain funding for education once released.”